The title says it all- we all have them, just look at Sex and the City’s famous “Secret Single Behavior” episode.
So, what are my bad beauty habits? Where to start?
1. I totally pick at my cuticles.
Likeallthetime. I have done this since I was young. When I’m stressed or anxious (or bored) I pick at my cuticles. It makes them look awful, it’s painful and overall it just looks bad. I try not to do it, but sometimes when I’m super anxious, I get carried away and before I know it, my fingers look like they’ve been mangled by a baby wildebeast.
2. I peel my split ends.
When I find one (and there are oh-so-many) I joyously split them apart. It’s quite addictive. My hairdresser told me to stop…but I just can’t resist.
3. Crazy out of control nail painting.
Perfect mani/pedi? Forget it. I try my best, get it all over the place and then spend 15 minutes in the shower peeling off the nail polish that’s all over the skin surrounding my nails. Not neccessarily a “bad” habit, but an annoying and time consuming one.
4. Not fully washing off my mascara at night.
I wash my face in the morning before I put my makeup on, and at night before bed. Sometimes, I don’t get all of my waterproof mascara off. I just go to sleep, wake up and get the rest off in the morning.
5. Not using night cream or eye cream.
I went through an eye cream phase, but it slowly faded into not using any at all. I know I should use it…but I just don’t because I’m lazy. Not too lazy for zit cream though, I’d never skip that!
6. Never moisturizing my body.
The only moisture my body encounters is sweat and body wash. I just hate the feeling of lotion. Hate. I hate touching it, I hate how it feels, I hate applying it. There is nothing appealing about it to me. It’s probably not so great for my skin, but I somehow manage not to be alligator-esque (they didn’t have moisturizer in the cave man days, and they turned out just fine, right!?)
7. Picking at blemishes.
Granted, I only get one of those huge can’t-keep-your-hands-off-of-it blemishes once in awhile, but when I do…well, I just can’t keep my hands off of it. I will squeeze the living daylights out of it until it feels like there’s not much left. Then I will saturate the area with 3 different pimple treatments.
8. Not exfoliating enough.
This isn’t a beauty sin or anything, but I always forget to do it. Ideally, I should do it once a week, and I forget. It makes skin look glowy and improves the texture…so I don’t know why I’m not totally partaking in a weekly skin scrub session.
9. Blowdrying my hair until it’s completely dry
I only do thise twice per week (after washing my hair) but it’s still not great for your hair. Airy drying doesn’t work for me, so I hit the heat to get the volume I want in my hair.
10. Avoiding regular trims (like the plague.)
Have you ever seen the movie “Confessions of a Shopaholic” with the gorgeous Isla Fisher? Remember the scene where Alette visits Rebecca’s parent’s home to offer her a job at the magazine, and Becky’s mom tries to serve her some coffee cake and Alette makes this horrified expression as she slices into it and says “tiny” until the slice of coffee cake becomes as thin as a piece of paper? That is how I am with my hairdresser. Even though I’ve told him 125 times, I still remind him before every single trim to take the teeniest, tiniest amount off possible.
and for my final bad beauty habit, I’ll post one I’ve recovered from- I used to use a magnifying mirror and just sit in front of it for like an hour squeeze at every pore and blemish (this was when I had bad skin). I would come out looking like a splotchy, red mess, but there was something deeply therapuetic and stress relieving about it. I don’t do it anymore, and my skin has never been better.
So, spill it- what are your bad beauty habits?
xoxo,
Veronika.
*This post made me laugh my mother would kill me if she saw this
-I am with you with the nail picking, that is why I rather give myself mani's!
-I only put lotion of my arms ..unless I am showing off my legs they never get moisture..horrible
-I've never used eye cream
-The only face primer that I use and adore..is
Monistat's Soothing Care Chafing Relief Powder-Gel
This is slightly pathetic, but I'm your bad habit twin… I DO EVERY SINGLE THING YOU MENTIONED… although for #2 (the split ends) I just rip out the strand of hair from the root since I know peeling is bad and I try to remember eye cream… I'd say I use about 50% of the time, but only at night never for day.. everything else, identical.
Two other bad habits, I'm lazy with flossing and I finally kicked the habit of not refreshing my saline solution. I used to just put my contacts back into old solution in my case until it got low… I know this is terrible, hence why I finally stopped.
iiris you are too funny! glad i'm not alone on the cuticle picking. It is the one thing that I try not to do because it looks so awful! You can always tell when I'm stressed-my nails always look horrible at that time
Oh my gosh…we are kindred spirits! I do all of these terrible things too!! I am SO bad at picking my cuticles…what is wrong with us!! Love your blog! So glad I found it!
Tiffany- kindred spirits indeed! We should start a bad beauty habits anonymous group!
I do nearly everything you mentioned! It's kind of comforting to know I'm not alone!
xoxo!
I'm so bad about my cuticles. I bite them, and my nails. It's one of those things I always thought I would grow out of but never did…
Completely unrelated but I was at Target today and they have pink Christmas lights. I think they made them just for you. 🙂
Oooh I do a lot of those too… blemish picking is my worst I think and I do it out of boredom and stress argh.
I'm also like you when it comes to applying lotion, I just can't be bothered. Luckily, we have this amazing product in the UK from Sanctuary called Body Moisture spray. It's very fine and you don't have to spend ages rubbing in the product, you just spray and voila. Although, it's a little oily, it sinks in really quick – it's definitely moisturizing for the lazy!
xjcx
1.) I have never used eye cream
2.) I wash and dry my hair every day (even though everyone who has ever cut my hair says I don't need to)
3.) Pick at my pimples
4.) Chew my cuticles
5.) Rarely (if ever) floss
I should look like a big mess! Thankfully I mange to escape that 🙂
Noelle- that is too cute! I was just at Target too and didn't notice them! Maybe next year 🙂
V…never seize to amaze me! I am 100% on board wtih EVERYTHING you do. OMG its shocking scary. I am at work and been laughing at my monitor out loud and now everyone thinks I am crazy. I have to say the worst is my cuticle picking, its as addictive for me as smoking for a smoker. NO JOKE! They're really bad. To the point that Chad has to check my hands everyone in an attempt to salvage and save me.
I HATE moisturizing because I feel like my fresh adn clean skin is now gunked with lotion that sticks to everything, but I HAVE TO! Maybe its me or jsut living in Canada, but I have the ultimate dryest skin in the country. It cracks if I don't 🙁
I'm so glad to see how many comments are on this and that none of us are alone in our hidden habit secrets haha
xoxo
m²
That is one of my favorite SATC episodes…and it is so true!
My worst beauty habit is that I wash, dry, flat iron and curl my hair each and every day. I know it's terrible, but I cannot stand to have even hair that is a little bit dirty.
Horrible, horrible nail biter/skin picker….complete OCD.
I do some that you also do especially #1.
~pick at or bite my cuticles
~sometimes skip lotioning up after a shower–this is lately Ive done this pretty religiously since I was about 15/16.
~not getting regular haircuts/trims
~not exfoliating enough
Im sure there are more that I am not thinking of at the moment.
Oh yes and I pick my skin and cant stop touching when I have a volcano forming on my face.
Hey V,
So..eye cream…START USING IT! the area around your eyes is sooo thin compared to the rest of your skin and needs special attention! I use the avocado cream from kielhs but I hear 'eye con' from benefit is pretty good 😉
I totally pick at every single pore, just like Charlotte; I probably won't give that one up for awhile!
I paint my nails the same way too, especially when using my left hand to do the right! it's a good thing it comes off of your skin fairly easily.
xx